A Writer's Take on Global and National Issues with Background Information and Humor As Needed

Call Center Work from Home is Still Call Center Work and May Not Be for You

Posted on August 28, 2010

You don’t want to start your own business so you are in the market to work for a company that outsources work for other companies and hires people to work from their homes. You are not alone. This is a growing phenomenon in the work place. Sadly, as with a lot of other things in life that sound good, there are lot of scams out there in this arena and there are lots of articles out there to help you try to avoid them.

But say you go with a growing national firm that handles work for any number of respected clients – selling product, instructing in the operation of a product, or customer service, etc. The focus will and should be customer satisfaction. It’s not just you and a few rules and a phone hooked up to a computer. It’s you and training to be the voice and attitude of a company as you fulfill needs such as processing a return. Well stop right there because you will be rated on how many returns you prevent either through resale or exchange. In short, don’t lose that sale. Software will track how often you pick up calls, how long they last and the outcome.

This is a world in which you can, to a certain extent, set your own hours but those hours once set are no longer your own. You are on the clock and need to be on time and productive – perhaps more so than if you were in a physical call center. There are breaks just as there are in a physical office.

Benefits may not be what you could wish, either. You may not be able to get full time work easily. If you are part-time, you may find that you do not get any paid vacation or sick leave. Further, hourly rates are not that high in many instances. Some sales positions do offer a bonus after a certain number of sales have been completed.

The bottom line here is: These are high-pressure, high-turnover essentially call-center jobs at low pay. You must have the patience of Job and the hide of a rhinoceros to make a go of it for very long.

The best types of work from home are jobs that grow out of a single, unique p0sition formerly anchored in an office that is administrative or professional in nature. These are very hard to come by but if you are a tried and true professional, it is not impossible.

Any of the above work environments are worth a try. Just know at the outset that while to work from home is “trending,” the work itself is as old as the ancient concept of cottage industry. And before you cry with joy that these jobs are returning from India and other countries, remember, they have come home for a reason. We no only speak the language needed; we now will accept the pay and benefits that we formerly could not bring ourselves to accept. It’s a changed world.

And you also have to cover the cost of your phone line rental, Internet link, maintaining your computer, etc. And no in-house computer support – though given that all they ever say is “switch it on and off again” that may not be any great loss.

I think it’s a great plus to see that companies are waking up to how long and far people have to commute for jobs they shouldn’t have to commute for. True, a certain level of commitment and professionalism is required, but when would that NOT be the case? If the call center were in a corporate building somewhere there would be dress codes, conduct rules both for the phone AND for interpersonal interaction, set lunch and break times, public restrooms, wear and tear on vehicles, gas, traffic, hostile bosses looking over the employee’s shoulder, and all other manner of things which aren’t all that appealing.

There is no such thing as an “ideal” job, but the idea of having one where I do something a company wants to pay someone to do, and that I can do it with the freedom and luxury afforded me to work at home (i.e., I can work in my underwear and fart or belch indiscriminately while scratching myself in unmentionable places) without having to deal with co-workers, traffic, direct report nuisances, interoffice politics, political correctness in the workplace, finding parking and many other lousy aspects of having a punch-the-clock-onsite job, this seems pretty cool.

True, it doesn’t pay well, and the benefits may be less than ideal, but “great benefits” are in the eye of the beholder now anyway (what I see as great benefits and what companies are calling “great benefits” are radically different). And I save the wear and tear on my car — not to mention my nerves — and lower my insurance payment by dropping how far I drive each week. In some ways, it’s a trade-off.

But, if you don’t like it, then it’s not worth it. Do you like it? 🙂 I hope so, and I hope your back/hip is better and improving. Still praying for you.

You and DK are too good to me and I love you both for it. I also am grateful to know a happy couple on line. That is something you should trail on a banner every time you fly over the countryside. Too little happiness over so much to be happy about but you’ve discovered the secret of this.